RAISING THE STAKES

LOCAL MUSICIAN JOHN MEYER IS CERTAINLY A BUSY BOY, MAINTAINING NOT ONE BUT THREE MUSICAL PROJECTS. HE TALKS TO BEN PREECE ALL ABOUT HIS MOST PERSONAL ONE.

When John Meyer’s name first hit the streets, probably earlier this year, there was a little head-scratching going around with his name closely resembling that of another US artist with ‘Your Body Is A Wonderland’ connotations. While this Meyer’s name sounds more like that of a rather large variety store chain, the singer says the likeness still causes some confusion.
“I’m kind of waiting for that letter from his lawyer,” he laughs. “I never really intended to be a solo act; my focus was always on a band. But the frustrations with band line-ups and stuff made me want to do something where I had a bit more control. But I get the John Mayer thing a lot – we were in Sydney and apparently there were a couple of German backpackers there at the venue earlier in the night waiting for John Mayer. The guy who was running the gig was like ‘You wouldn’t have got in for free and it wouldn’t have been this empty!’.
But name comparisons aside John Meyer is his own musical beast. Unlike the American Mayer, he shows real character in his songwriting and an original focus on lyrical content. You just have to know the title of his solo debut Silver Bullets Don’t Work On Vampires to get the picture.
“The title causes a bit of confusion, gets people talking, which I guess is a good thing,” Meyer explains. “The silver bullet reference is pretty obvious, but the theme of [the title track] is about that first flush of lust and love of a new relationship. The song talks about getting it on on a sofa bed with lots of wine and connotations but there’s also a sinister edge – there’s always those lingering doubts that creep in pretty quickly at the back of your mind. That is the metaphor for the vampire hanging over the relationship. We all have our defence mechanism which is our silver bullet but they don’t necessarily work no matter how strong they are.”
But for every silver bullet wasted, there must be successes or metaphorical wooden stakes which, according to mythology, actually do kill vampires.
“If you want the wooden stake to get rid of that vampire, which I think I have done successfully, it’s just self-knowledge,” he laughs. “I’m sure we all go through difficult times but I guess the more you know yourself, the more you stop making those mistakes over and over again – it’s all about self-awareness.”
The subject of the difficult headspace that sometimes exists within a relationship raises its head throughout the course of the EP. Though unintentional, it was Meyer’s creative brain that made the songs accidentally link together.
“From different angles, quite a few songs deal with that same idea of contrast between feeling positive about a relationship but with nagging doubts or the opposite, feeling bad about it but having positive thoughts that lift you. There’s a bit of that in most of the songs actually and it wasn’t until I put them together that I realised there was a theme.”
Meyer explains that it’s too early to envisage the grand plan of his latest project. Regardless he keeps himself busy also fronting local groups The Internalists and The Good Ship.
“We’ll wait and see where it goes and leave for others to judge,” he says. “The first EP, in my mind, is a bit of a calling card, the first step on the ladder. I don’t expect massive things from it yet. That said, it’s been getting good responses and things are going really well.”

WHO: John Meyer
WHAT: Silver Bullets Don’t Work On Vampires (Independent)
WHERE & WHEN: Icon Creative Summit at Roma Street Parkland Amphitheatre Friday Nov 28 and Cafe La Plaz Friday Dec 12